Why sprout beans? Besides giving salads and sandwiches a wonderful crunch and a sweet flavor, they’re just plain good for you. When beans go through the sprouting process, the starches break down into simple sugars that are quickly used by the body for energy. There is no longer as much starch available for the body to store as fat. Along with this bonus of easier digestion, there is a burst of extra nutrients during the germination process. That means you get extra vitamin C, B vitamins and carotene just from sprouting.

Due to these health benefits, we’ve tried to add sprouts to more of our meals – but we got so sick of buying bean sprouts and having them get slimy and gross within a week. So . . . we hopped on board the sprouting-your-own-beans train!

It’s a really simple process. All you have to do is a little rinsing and then give it some time.

We like using a sprouting jar. I know there’s other methods but the jar is so easy. Basically, it’s a glass jar with a wire mesh lid that screws on. Besides this piece of equipment, all you need are some beans or grains to sprout. We’ve used a mixture of different beans that we really enjoy and we’ve also been doing mung beans. The beans in the following pictures are mung beans.

Here’s what you do:

Put about 1/3 cup beans into your jar with about 1 cup of cool water. Soak them overnight or about 8-12 hours.

Rinse the beans thoroughly and then drain them thoroughly every 8-12 hours. Usually I just do the rinsing in the morning after waking and then in the evening before bed.

Repeat this process until the sprouts are the desired size.

Short, sweet little sprouts: 2-3 days.

Longer, thicker sprouts: 3-5 days.

We learned the hard way that more really isn’t better. The first time we sprouted beans we just dumped in a whole package and went for it. As the beans sprouted, they grew. And grew. And GREW. We just couldn’t eat them fast enough and soon, we ran into the problem of them going bad before we could finish them.

So.

Take my word for it, if you’re going to start sprouting some beans – start with 1/3 cup!

We haven’t ventured into sprouting grains but, after this move, I think we might try them too. I love Ezekiel 4:9 bread and have hankered to try my hand at it. Thankfully my poor guys are great sports about all the new things I try on them! I’ll let you know how it goes.